Friday, July 24, 2015

Vampire Normalization Urged in Idaho Univ. Study

University researchers have concluded that vampires in America "seem to function normally" and are simply people who have an "alternative identity" (think sexual orientation) who should be treated like everyone else by government social workers because "We should not be surprised to see a proliferation of nontraditional identities in the future."

"Real vampires seem to be ordinary human beings with common, everyday human issues, such as trying to be successful in relationships and careers, managing stress, coping with daily living tasks, and adjustments to transitions, to name a few."
-- D. J. Williams, Idaho State University sociology professor

Vampires are real. No, not the impossibly perfect Cullens in the "Twilight" movies or tortured but well-dressed souls in CW shows. But human beings who self-identify as vampires and may drink blood or sleep in coffins. And these people need as much psychotherapy and medical help as the rest of us.

That's the conclusion of a study by D.J. Williams, director of social work at Idaho State University, and published in the July issue of the peer-reviewed journal Critical Social Work.

Williams and his co-author, Emily E. Prior, a researcher at the College of the Canyons, interviewed 11 vampires from across the United States and South Africa and found that they were reluctant to come out to clinicians because they were fearful about being labeled as being psychopathological or "perhaps wicked, and not competent to perform in typical social roles, such a parenting."

Williams, who has studied self-identified vampires for nearly a decade, finds they come from every walk of life and profession, including doctors, attorneys and candlestick makers.

Except they are very, very tired. That’s apparently the chief reason they find a consenting adult willing to allow them to use a scalpel to make a tiny incision in the chest area so they can ingest a small amount of blood for energy, the study found.

“The real vampire community seems to be a conscientious and ethical one,” Williams said.

The challenge is finding non-judgmental clinicians to whom vampires can disclose their alternative lifestyles, he added.

“We live in an age of technology and live in a time when people can select new, alternate identities to fit how they understand themselves better,” Williams said. “We really need to understand some of these new identities and new ways to identify ourselves, and some of these new identities do not fit into stereotypes. Helping professionals of all varieties need more education on these kinds of topics. ”

“It’s not a religion. It’s akin to our sexual orientation,” Williams said. “It’s their identity, and it’s an important part of who they are.”

Williams hopes his research helps to shine light on the issue of alternate identities and the need to be sensitive and aware.

“In our codes of ethics — and this is true of social work, counseling, psychology and medicine — we talk about being open and non-judgmental to try to understand a client’s world and context,” Williams said. “This study explored the world and context of self-proclaimed vampires. A lot of clinicians are still not willing to accept these types of studies or are not aware of them.”

“People don’t seem to be diagnosed as vampires, at least not the way that the vampires in our study use that term. The self-identified vampires that we have dealt with seem to recognize at some point in their lives that they chronically seem to need extra energy.

“Eventually, they learn that there are other people who seem to have this same need, and they find a community with an explanation that seems to make sense to them,” Williams said.

Eighty-two percent of the study participants reported their gender as female, with one “intersexed, female assigned individual” and one “postoperative, male-to-female transsexual.” One participant identified as male, and one as “gender-queer.”

Five said they were pagan; four were wiccan; one identified as “spiritual”; and one said they had no religious affiliation.